Dallas Mavericks Blog

Lamar Odom on his technical fouls: ‘Second one was probably necessary,’ but ‘the first one was a surprise’

Christmas Day didn’t exactly go as planned for Lamar Odom, who was ejected from his first game as a Dallas Maverick on Sunday at American Airlines Center.

Odom picked up two technical fouls from veteran referee Scott Foster midway through the third quarter after arguing a foul call. Odom was initially called for a charge after colliding with Miami Heat superstar LeBron James. Some arguing ensued and soon Odom’s Mavericks debut was over.

“Usually after 13 years, a couple of rings, seeing my face, now I’m playing with the champs, you usually get a warning or something like that,” Odom said.

Asked if he was frustrated by Foster’s call, Odom responded, “Of course I was frustrated. I mean, I got thrown out the game.”

Odom added: “The second one was probably necessary and the first one was a surprise, to be honest with you. Being that this is a person that I seen before, had conversations with before, I was kind of shocked by the first one. I thought LeBron James slid in kind of late, the ball was out of my hands. They were up 30. You kind of just let them play.”

In 13 minutes on the floor, Odom finished with four rebounds, four fouls and four points on 1-of-6 shooting. The veteran forward came off the bench and hit his first three-pointer but missed his next five attempts from the field.

The ejection made it two in a row for Odom, both coming at AAC. As a member of the Los Angeles Lakers last season, Odom was ejected from L.A.’s final playoff game after hitting Dirk Nowitzki with his forearm.